After the TV Debate between Harris and Trump: A Mood Report from the USA

Seldom has an election campaign in the USA been so exciting, seldom have Americans faced such a fundamental choice of direction for their country. But where is the journey heading? How are people across the country following the contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump? What hopes, expectations and fears will determine whether they send a Black woman to the White House for the first time or give the former president a second chance?

We want to discuss these and other questions with Elmar Thevessen on the day after the TV debate between Harris and Trump. After the first debate of this presidential campaign famously signalled the end of Joe Biden's candidacy, the upcoming televised duel between his successor and the former president is awaited with the greatest anticipation. How Trump approaches his new opponent, which strategy she has chosen and, above all, how Americans rate the two candidates' performances is what Thevessen will assess for us.

We meet him virtually while he travels with a ZDF team by camper van over roughly 7,000 kilometres through 15 U.S. states to explore the mood in the country. Whom the reporters meet on their road trip and which stories they tell is left to chance. The route does not follow the interstates, the major motorways, but smaller roads through tiny towns and large cities. This gives rise to spontaneous encounters with Americans from the most diverse population groups. (The documentary “American Voices - Roadtrip durch ein zerrissenes Land” will be broadcast on 23 October 2024 at 10:15 p.m. on ZDF.)

Our guest, Elmar Thevessen, has been head of the ZDF studio for North and Central America in Washington, D.C. since March 2019. Previously he served, among other roles, as deputy editor-in-chief and head of the main current-affairs department of ZDF (2007-2019) and as duty editor of the ZDF main current-affairs department in Mainz and ZDF terrorism expert (2003-2007). For his journalistic work Thevessen has received numerous awards, including the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Prize (2023), the German Television Award (2012) and the Media Prize of the German Bundestag (1994). He studied political science, history and German studies in Bonn and Washington, D.C.

Moderated by Viktoria Harbecke, chair of the Association of German-American Centers.

This event also takes place in German on 11 September 2024 at 7:30 p.m. online on Zoom.

Register via this link.